KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri couple involved in an international adoption dispute said they are seeking information about their adopted child’s past and want to protect her from “additional trauma,” a statement released from them Friday said.

A Guatemala judge ordered Timothy J. Monahan and his wife, Jennifer Monahan, of Liberty to return their 6-year-old adopted daughter to her birth mother, amid claims the girl was kidnapped in 2006 and put up for adoption. SURVIVORS Foundation, the human rights group representing the birth mother, does not allege the Monahans knew anything about a kidnapping.

The Monahans have refused to discuss the case and have not commented publicly how they came to adopt the child or whether they were represented in the proceedings in Guatemala. But a statement released by a public relations firm they hired said they “will continue to advocate for the safety and best interests of their legally adopted child.”